All the problems we had in secondary school that we wish we had now

It seems as though it was forever ago. We would wake up at an ungodly hour, force down breakfast and begrudgingly make the journey to the hellhole establishment we called school. Everything seemed a chore. Lessons, homework, exams, you name it, if it was happening, we were complaining.

Then, we came to university and all of a sudden realised how small our school struggles were. We begin to wish we were back experiencing what we thought, at the time, were the biggest injustices of life.

Lets call upon the huge problems we had in secondary school that we wish we had now.

Having to carry our food tech stuff and PE kit on the same day

The heaviest day of the week. Food tech day and PE kit day. We would drag ourselves around with a minimum of three heavy bags, sweaty, weak and looking like a pack horse. It was that bad it got us contemplating whether to fake sickness. However, compared to our uni supplies: books, laptop, food, water, chargers, purse, will to carry on; we're wishing we could go back to the days of pretending to enjoy football or being proud of our slightly charred jam biscuits.

Suddenly PE kit and food tech gear seem like feather-like

Not looking our absolute best 24/7

You cannot deny it, secondary school is a fashion show. A breeding ground of teenagers, all fighting it out to have the best bag, best hair, best phone. If you were a girl without a Jane Norman bag – go home hun. Lads, anything other than a Nike Air shoes? Just don't bother coming in. At university you're lucky if you even comb your hair. If you're wearing makeup – it's because you forgot to take it off after the night before. Sometimes we even forget to bring a pen.

Fig 1. A university student reacts to "adulting" for the first time

Being forced to be healthy

Damn, you were late to the canteen. All the best dinners are gone and you're forced to eat the dreaded leftover vegetables. You quietly curse Jamie Oliver under your breath as you force down green beans and carrots. You would think that moving to university would finally free you of eating healthy food. Yet after we've overdone meal deals, beans on toast and takeaways, we are crying out for a mountain of steamed veg.

Yeah it looks good, but not exactly the fuel you need for a degree

Being caught on your phone

It has happened to us all. You're sneakily browsing Facebook when you realise the room has fallen silent. You look up to meet the glare of your teacher who inevitably will hold out their hand to confiscate your phone. Nightmare. Now, try meeting the glare of the tutor when you haven't done your reading for the week. Never has such fear been struck into a student who has to present on something they have no idea about. Take my phone away any day, it's distracting lure is probably the reason I haven't done my reading. You probably have reading to do right now, don't you?

Homework

If six hours of hard labour wasn't enough for our teacher's satisfaction. We would be assigned homework. Fill out a sheet with reference to a textbook. That was it, weekend ruined. It was simply not fair. University students would kill for weekend-only homework. We haven't even started the first semester and we're drowning in readings, papers and essays. Oh what we would trade for a simple trip back to the MyMaths days, it seems a desirable trade in the face of a 3000 word essay.

Not gonna lie, I shuddered at opening up this website

Looking back, our secondary school days were those of little problems. We reflect on what easy times we had. It was a succession of firsts: first exam stresses, first real tiredness, first heartbreak. Looking back it was just so easy compared to university. However, would we ever go back?

Hahaha nooooooope.